Travel

Monday, December 17, 2012

"Peasants used to burn a yule log on the Winter Solstice in December. The Winter Solstice is the day of the year with the shortest amount of daylight. The peasants hoped to keep evil spirits away by burning the Yule log, which they presumed might come because of the prolonged darkness of the Winter Solstice." - from christmaslore.com

The Yule Log Dessert came later and substituted for the much older tradition of burning an actual log. I chose to make a pumpkin roll with cream cheese icing rather than a chocolate one. I used baking marzipan to create the leaves and mushrooms and lightly coated them in some leftover icing.

Monday, May 14, 2012

“When we know the name of something, it brings us closer to
the ground. It takes the blur out of our mind; it connects us to the earth. If
I walk down the street and see “dogwood,” and “forsythia,” I feel more friendly
toward the environment. I am noticing what is around me and can name it. It
makes me more awake.” Natalie Goldberg Writing
Down the Bones

I came back around to the quote recently and it reminded me of
my own ways. When I moved to the woods, I took to identifying what was before
me – trees, birds, bugs, flowers. This was my attempt to wrap my head around
the wilderness that now surrounded me, as if to cordially introduce myself to
this land, to offer a genial handshake. I hoped, in turn, that a friendship
might blossom. It got me wondering if it is man’s nature to name everything. To
want everything to have a name – fire, death, god. Or is it the writer’s nature
to put word to object, to grope wildly for a phrase to describe a thing, an
emotion, an experience? I think it is a little of both.